Vol. XXI, No. 156 [ Business World Online ]
Monday, March 10, 2008 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
PRESIDENT Gloria M. Arroyo is scheduled to sign tomorrow the P1.227-trillion national budget for this year, Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran said.
"It [national budget] will be signed already on Tuesday," he said in an interview last weekend.
Presidential Legislative Liaison Office head Joaquin C. Lagonera confirmed this in a phone interview, saying "I think the signing ceremonies would be held on Tuesday."
House of Representatives Appropriations committee chairman Rep. Edcel C. Lagman of Albay (1st District) said reductions in interest payments for foreign loans totaled P25.9 billion, consisting: P15.9 billion in savings due to the appreciation of the peso with the exchange rate pegged at P41 per dollar; P5 billion in suspended interest payments for loans that are supposedly fraudulent or useless, pending the Executive’s renegotiation of the loans or their eventual condonation; as well as P5 billion in premature allocations for interest payments for program loans and bond issuances still in the pipeline.
Mr. Lagman added that proposed funding for slow-moving projects, excess allocations and other miscellaneous allotments totaling P12.638 billion were likewise slashed.
Total cuts amounting to P38.5 billion were realigned to other priorities, including: basic and higher education, higher by P4.829 billion to P158.602 billion; health, up P5.790 billion to P25.847 billion; agriculture, up P1.872 billion to P29.161 billion; infrastructure, up P12.982 billion to P94.729 billion; justice and the judiciary, up P1.236 billion to P16.570 billion; social welfare and development, up P165 million to P4.848 billion; local governance and development, up P3.5 billion to P16.253 billion; public safety and security, up P859 million to P53.242 billion; labor and employment, up P236 million to P6.272 billion; energization, up P600 million to P.922 billion; environmental protection, P184 million for a total new allocation of P8.118 billion; and sports development, increased by P59 million to P360 million. — A. D. B. Romero and A. B. L. Lorenzo
